


Go through me

by redroslin



Series: The Laura Roslin soul mate AUs [5]
Category: Battlestar Galactica (2003)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Soulmates, Angst, F/F, Platonic Soulmates, Soulmate Shared Injury Trope, Timestamp, or are they
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-06-03
Updated: 2019-06-03
Packaged: 2020-04-07 11:20:25
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,721
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19083976
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/redroslin/pseuds/redroslin
Summary: "I have something to tell you," Leoben whispered in her ear. "I know who your soul mate is."





	Go through me

**Author's Note:**

> Featuring several lines of dialogue lifted from ep 1.08 (Flesh & Bone).

_GEMENON TRAVELER, 25 DAYS AFTER CYLON ATTACK ON THE TWELVE COLONIES_

 

She hated how vulnerable it made her feel, but there was no avoiding it; whatever her soul mate had done to their right knee was serious enough, and had been slow enough to heal, that Laura would need to bring a cane when she went to confront the Cylon.

She'd considered requesting a meeting with Galactica's doctor in the days since the sharp crack that had woken her in the middle of the night to a frakked up knee, but--well, it seemed like a waste of time. Her soul mate had healed from worse in the past and undoubtedly had good medical care, probably from the very same military doctors on Galactica who'd be put out by a trip to Colonial One; Laura could wait it out. She'd mention it to the Commander if it was still giving her this much trouble the next time she was on board.

She deliberately didn't think about her last visit to Galactica, hours after her knee gave out, and Apollo's shocked, "Madam President! What's wrong?" as Billy helped her out of a wheelchair and through the hatch to Adama's quarters.

She'd had no time for Lee's concern then--too focused on the necessity of taking both Adamas to task for their loss of perspective over the vaunted Lieutenant Thrace's disappearance--and she had equally little time for sentiment now. No matter how precarious that last Chamalla dream had left her mental state.

("I have something to tell you, Laura," the Cylon had whispered in her ear. "I know who your soul mate is.")

At least she was on her feet now. If she'd despised showing weakness in front of Commander Adama, how much worse to not be able to stand in front of the Cylon agent.

The back of her head was still smarting from whatever had happened to her soul mate a few hours ago, but there was no sign of concussion--thank the gods. Bruising high on Laura's throat suggested a struggle had been involved. No nausea or dizziness, this time--and who would have guessed she'd ever be _grateful_ that she knew exactly what a vicarious concussion felt like? But at least she could be sure she didn't have one now.

So Laura was upright and limping down the Gemenon Traveler's corridors, following the ship's soft-spoken first officer, when she heard Leoben's voice--hoarse, patient, and unmistakeably the same voice she'd heard in her dreams.

She _shouldn't_ know what he sounded like. It wasn't rational and she couldn't explain it, but she knew his voice.

"I told you I had a surprise for you," the Cylon was saying to a Colonial officer--evidently Lieutenant Thrace--who sat with her back to the door, blonde hair askew. "Are you ready?"

He leaned in, but the young woman didn't react.

"You're going to find Kobol," he said, radiating smugness in the same infuriating tones he'd used in Laura's dream. "Birthplace of us all."

"Open it," Laura said. The guards undogged the hatch to the holding cell and threw it wide. Laura took in the bucket, the blood on the floor, the waterlogged man-- _machine_ \-- _whatever_ he was, shivering pathetically in his chains, his eyes riveted on Thrace.

"But first, Kara," the Cylon went on, a twinkle in his vicious little eyes, "you're going to meet your soul mate--and she's not going to like you much."

Well, _frak_.

Laura had meant to wade in and verbally eviscerate whoever was behind these brutal proceedings--but that revelation rather put a crimp in her plans.

And turning to meet her was Lieutenant Kara Thrace, wearing _a full-length brace on her right leg_ and the most endearing combination of skepticism, defiance, and outright fear Laura had ever seen on a young woman's face.

And she was lovely. Almost too lovely.

Laura's knee throbbed even as her frustration guttered and died.

"Two chairs," she demanded of the guards. "Now."

 

* * *

 

Seated awkwardly in the hall, Laura glared through the open door at the Cylon chained to his chair, and then at her--her-- _Lieutenant Thrace_. Of all the most improbable possibilities.

"What the hell is going on here?" She tried to modulate her tone but it still came out aggressive, abrasive, far too harsh.

"It's a machine, sir," Thrace said defensively. "There's no limit to the tactics I can use."

Fine. First priorities first. "And the warhead?"

"I don't know."

Laura sighed. She _was_ disappointed, but this wasn't some arrogant young officer who'd gotten in over her head interrogating a Cylon spy; this was Laura's godsforsaken _soul mate_ , and Laura knew better than anyone the hells this young woman had been through and come out the other side.

And the lack of information on the bomb wasn't exactly a surprise, after all. "We already suspect there isn't a nuke. What do you have to show for the past eight hours?"

"Nothing," Thrace admitted shakily. "Except--he thinks he can see the future. Says he knows our destiny, our fate. Says you're mine. Sir."

In spite of the situation and the half-drowned, battered Cylon agent--or maybe because of it--Laura could almost have laughed. "Is he the cause of our mutual headache and the bruising on your throat?"

"Pulled off his cuffs and threw me up against a bulkhead earlier. Sir."

"Stop calling me sir," Laura told her. "And stop looking at me like I'm about to kick your cat. We may never have crossed paths before this, but I care about you, Lieutenant."

"You--what?"

"We can talk more about what we are to each other later."

Thrace snapped upright as if Laura had slapped her. Ouch. She'd have to figure out how to avoid triggering that reaction in future. "All right."

"Clean him up. We don't have much time."

 

* * *

 

 

Laura couldn't shake the image of Leoben out of her mind--his limp body tumbling out the airlock, the way his eyes had looked through her at the end, cold and inhuman but somehow almost... forgiving.

A shiver had run through her when he grabbed her-- _so this is how it ends, so this is how I die, when I only just found her_ \--but all he'd done was pull Laura close and whisper in her ear, just like he had in her dream, "I told you your other half was coming, Laura. But she doesn't want you the way you want her."

 

* * *

 

There was no nuke--thank the gods--but the Cylon's death cast a pall over everyone as they made their way to the shuttles. They were a quiet group: Laura, Kara Thrace, and a half dozen marines between them, everyone eager to leave the scene of this little clusterfrak behind.

Still, Laura knew that if she let Thrace leave with everything unspoken between them, she might never get another chance.

"Lieutenant Thrace," she said. "A word."

The Lieutenant didn't stop and Laura thought, for just a moment, that Thrace might keep walking--limp to her raptor and fly back to Galactica without acknowledging her.

And then she turned, and Laura was confronted with her soul mate's wide brown eyes and anxious smile.

"You'd better start calling me Kara," Thrace said with a patently false grin. "Or Starbuck, if you're feeling kinky. _Sir_."

Leoben had known. _She doesn't want you the way you want her._

She thought of Commander Adama's warning about the Cylon. _Anything it says cannot be trusted._ And yet. This was not the look of someone eager to be close to her soul mate.

"That's all right, Kara." Laura smiled--warm but not too warm, sensible and reassuring. "We're platonic, obviously."

"Obviously," Kara agreed.

So much for that sliver of hope. _You knew the odds were against a romantic soul match the minute you figured out how young she was_ , Laura told herself. _How young she_ is _. And how frakking lovely. You never stood a chance of impressing this one._

"That's not to say it's not... I care about you a great deal." Laura took a breath and admitted her failures. "If you knew how hard I looked for you and how badly I wanted to protect you--"

Kara bristled. "I don't need your _protection_."

"Apparently not," Laura agreed. "But that doesn't change how much I wanted to give it."

"I'm sorry I'm not what you wanted," Kara snapped. "I didn't mean to let you down."

"Let me--no," Laura told her. "You _are not_ a letdown. I am thrilled to finally meet you."

"Why?" Kara stared into her eyes, brash and... terrified, Laura thought. "I'm just a viper jock, Madam President. Why the frak would someone like you care about someone like me?"

There was so much there to unpack, and no way to know how to defuse it without blowing them both to bits.

 _Of course_ Kara was insecure. Of course she was angry. Kara had a lifetime of bruises--and worse--for Laura to make up to her.

It hadn't all been bruises, though.

"I kept photos of your drawings--of the art you inked on my body," Laura said softly. She remembered Cheryl and Sandra, standing in her kitchen on a sunny September day as they all stared in awe at the whorls and starbursts dancing up her arms. Sandra had taken the photos. "They got left behind in my bedside table in Caprica City, but I treasured them."

Kara shook her head. "I was just doodling. It was stupid."

"No. It wasn't. I was so proud of you that day. I am still so proud of you."

"You don't even know me," Kara snarled. "What's there to be proud of?"

"You're right," Laura admitted, "I don't know much about you."

_Except that Lee and the Commander both love you, and that alone should have told me something._

"But here's the thing." She took Kara's left hand carefully in her right, interlacing their fingers, and hummed in thought. "Why don't you let me find out?"

Kara froze for a second... then shook her head and smiled disbelievingly. "You're really not used to anyone saying no to you, are you, Madam President?"

"Will you laugh at me if I say no?"

"No." But Kara was already laughing, and Laura squeezed her hand and felt an answering pressure.

**Author's Note:**

> THE END
> 
> (Until the sequel fic I'll probably never write, in which Laura is inexplicably sad at watching Kara frak everyone in sight, and Kara suddenly makes a move on her)
> 
> (JUST KIDDING I'm already writing the sequel, whoops)


End file.
